Criterion Collection Comes to Hulu Plus

If there wasn’t already a reason to sign up for Hulu Plus, there most certainly is now. The Criterion Collection has recently uploaded some 150 of the important classic and contemporary films in their catalog to the streaming video site.

While many films in the collection are already available from other streaming video sites like Mubi.com and Netflix, Criterion promises to set themselves apart through their partnership with Hulu by providing films that the average American cinephile would be hard-pressed to obtain in the United States. “On Hulu Plus, you’ll find everything in our library,” Peter Becker writes on the Criterion website, “from Academy Award winners to many of the most famous films by art-house superstars like Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, and Federico Fellini to films so rare that they have never been seen in the U.S. in any medium. Some of these lost gems have been so hard to see that even most of the Criterion staff will see them for the first time only when they go live on Hulu Plus!”

Hulu also plans to break new ground in the world of video-on-demand by featuring many of the home-video perks that Criterion pioneered for laserdisc, and later DVD and Blu-Ray, such as commentaries, trailers, interviews and essays.

The subscription-based service is available for a mere $8 a month at Hulu.com.